Resolutions

Did you set goals for yourself last year that you didn't achieve?
I did. Do you remember that mine were:

Ten Nights Only will be finished by March 31. and submitted through normal lines.
This was finished end of November with the help of NaNoWriMo and first chapter and synopsis sent off for the Harlequin editorial challenge. - Guaranteed to have a reply by Jan 31st!

Logan's Angel will be finished by June 30. and submitted through normal lines
Nope, didn't even look at it!

Secrets and Lies will be reworked and edited and finished by December 31st.

Had some feedback from some friends that i've pondered but haven't done anything with!

Untitled Princess story written and edited by December 31st.

Not looked at, but thought about!

So this tells me that i was WAY too ambitious for my goals for last year. I will just have to tried to not over goal myself (so not the right expression but you get it right!?)

I'm going to be studying online this year for an Early Childhood Education Degree, so won't be able to put all my time into writing like i tried to last year.

I have started the year with a new idea that is quite exciting!

So i think i will just try to write a little bit each day and see where that takes me.

What were your goals last year? Did you reach them?

What are yours for this year?

And it's on!

The heat, the desire, the passion, we all know where it leads. I finally have my characters in the master bedroom, one screaming for release the other determined to make it last....
Oh and the results are going to be hot and bothersome, in more ways than one ;)  Have to torture these poor people before they get their HEA!

Oh and i'm going to have to realign my goal. I was hoping to finish this draft by the end of this month, but that was with the expectation i would have three afternoons without my daughter, but she isn't starting public kindy until January.
So new goal if to finish draft by end of november.

My process is painfully slow. I seem to need everything to be perfect, well as perfect as it can be!, straight away. I do the layering, the senses, the dialogue, EVERYTHING, on the first run then tweak it later. (I've done the first three chapters, ready for submission)
Also when it isn't working i take a break until the problem fixes in my subconsious or i suddenly figure out what to do to fix it! This draft has taken me since the beginning of April! a 7 month draft?!!
Well i know i am going to have to be MUCH faster if i ever want to be published - and i do, i really really do! I think i just need more discipline.

How do you write? Bare bones first then layering and editing or are you a perfectionist? How long does it take you to write that first draft?

Impromptu Critique

I sent my WIP to my good friend at Damsel in a Dirty Dress for an impromptu critique last week and i must say it is a fantastic shake up to the moral and a firing of the writing cylinders!
I wasn't going to read through it, was going to wait until i'd finished the story, but at the rate i've been going i didn't know how long that was going to take! And i was curious...

I've been plodding along writing maybe one afternoon a week, between doing housework and things for the kids and helping out at kindy and i think putting it off - why? I'm enjoying this story but i guess i was getting to that point where i was thinking that it wasn't any good you know?

But this critique has been honest and pointed out things i hadn't seen, asked questions i hadn't thought of and well, shaken me up! No more putting it off.

It is worth writing, and i am going to write more often. My daughter is turning 3 in a few weeks and will be at kindy 5 afternoons a week which will give me more free time to do it, i'm just too tired in the evenings and know i don't do it even if i mean to in the evenings! So the afternoons is going to be the time for me! No more putting it off!

New goal: 1st Draft will be completed by end of October! I don't see why i can't do that seeing as i am 60% percent there, so this is actually a doable goal. And i have made it October just in case daughter doesn't get in to kindy until end of September.
So fingers, be prepared for more tapping!

Lack of Word Count

Man, it is already the end of the second week of the new year and so far no word count! So much for my goals for 2010:

Ten Nights Only will be finished by March 31. and submitted through normal lines.

Logan's Angel will be finished by June 30. and submitted through normal lines

Secrets and Lies will be reworked and edited and finished by December 31st.

Or course i had thought i had another goal there too, an as yet untitled Princess story that has been burning in my brain for ages too, so i'll add that now:

Untitled Princess story written and edited by December 31st.

In light of my lack of word count so far, so early into the new year maybe i shouldn't have so many goals afterall. But surely once our housing dramas are over with and hopefully my health improves (snorts!) i can get underway. I will just knuckle down regardless. Will have to pull out the husbands work laptop and pound out the word count every spare minute i have. I really, really want to succeed and only way i will achieve this is to put in the hard work.

After all:

No pain, no gain.